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Other Games, Development, & Campaigns => Design, Development, and Gameplay => Topic started by: imurrx on October 27, 2010, 12:27:09 AM

Title: Anyone use a eBook for PDF books?
Post by: imurrx on October 27, 2010, 12:27:09 AM
As most of us here have vast copies of PDF books on our computer, it would be wonderful to use it in a game instead of a PC, laptop or a book bag full of books.

I can pick up this Android tablet from work at around 150 bucks with my discount.

http://www.walgreens.com/store/c/pandigital-novel-7-inch-color-multimedia-ereader/ID=prod6021970-product

Has anyone used something similar (except for an iPad) and had good results?
Title: Anyone use a eBook for PDF books?
Post by: Benoist on October 27, 2010, 12:30:43 AM
Can't say I have, but I am very interested in the topic. I have a LARGE PDF collection now, and really would like to find a way to use them directly at a game table without using a computer per se.
Title: Anyone use a eBook for PDF books?
Post by: imurrx on October 27, 2010, 12:43:23 AM
I currently use a Eee PC 1000HE. Great netbook! I can view the PDF, access our spreadsheets, and look stuff up on the fly. It has a small foot print too.

Unfortunately, it is not as user friendly. I would love to have a dedicated device to use for all the 3.5 PDF we use. Something to hand off when reading rules.

On top of that, my 1000he is starting to fail from being dropped too many times.
Title: Anyone use a eBook for PDF books?
Post by: kryyst on October 27, 2010, 09:12:04 AM
I had a kobo that I used for normal ebook reading.   I triked throwing some PDF's through it.  It was more hit then miss and even on ones that it handled ok it was still barely usable.  The screen was to small, the text flow was to slow page turning was to slow and on the kobo (shouldn't be a problem for the Kindle or Nook) you couldn't do any searches.  So really the experience for using it as a gaming device was fail - but for book reading just fine.

Now that being said I now have an iPad.  It's sublime for reading gaming pdf's on.  Screen looks awesome renders them very well, it's fast, search-able and the screen size is perfect.  For game book applications it's the shiznit.   The experience is so much better then trying to read them on my laptop, computer and certainly any netbook that I've seen - though I imagine a tablet style net book would be pretty good.

Now the down side is that the iPad is around $600, I was lucky enough to win one so for me the situation is blissful.
Title: Anyone use a eBook for PDF books?
Post by: imurrx on November 03, 2010, 11:46:48 PM
Has anyone used any Android tablets yet?
Title: Anyone use a eBook for PDF books?
Post by: ColonelHardisson on November 04, 2010, 09:56:22 PM
I put a bunch of gaming pdfs on my Kindle, including the Dragon Magazine archive pdfs. Talk about convenience! If I manage to cobble together a gaming group, I'll definitely use it at the table.
Title: Anyone use a eBook for PDF books?
Post by: imurrx on November 05, 2010, 01:13:57 AM
Quote from: ColonelHardisson;414214
I put a bunch of gaming pdfs on my Kindle, including the Dragon Magazine archive pdfs. Talk about convenience! If I manage to cobble together a gaming group, I'll definitely use it at the table.


How functional is it? As the iPod review, how effective is it in reading the text, searching and use? Any drawbacks or advantages to it?
Title: Anyone use a eBook for PDF books?
Post by: imurrx on November 05, 2010, 01:19:55 AM
I have been using a Eee 1000he. The netbook is pretty easy to use but it can be cumbersom. Battery life is not a problem and storage is great. Using the Atom processor is kinda slow, but it is not a problem for the most part.

On the downside is the usability and passing it around. Also, it's footprint on the table can be an issue. Navigating the pdf with a keyboard and touchpad is doable, but having a touch screen would be better.
Title: Anyone use a eBook for PDF books?
Post by: Lawbag on November 05, 2010, 04:48:40 AM
An ASUS netbook is what I use for PDF viewing, plus with Open Office it has a fair amount of productivity built in as well.
 
Far more useful than an iPad or just PDF viewer.
Title: Anyone use a eBook for PDF books?
Post by: kryyst on November 05, 2010, 11:24:46 AM
Quote from: Lawbag;414291
An ASUS netbook is what I use for PDF viewing, plus with Open Office it has a fair amount of productivity built in as well.
 
Far more useful than an iPad or just PDF viewer.


Not to get all defensive.  But I put my Ipad through lots of productivity requirements.  I've got spreadsheet/word software on it for general simple gaming stuff which it handles with aplomb.  For more serious work I remotely control my desktop running full OpenOffice.  It handles it fine, syncs the document back up to google docs then I can pick it up later on my ipad if I need it.

While I'm not suggesting the Ipad can do everything a netbook can - it does have limitations.  But to suggest it can't be used for productivity is just bullocks.  And when looking at it for it's real strengths, which is a device for consuming and viewing content it's amazing.  A large part of that is definitely the form factor, especially when it comes to reading any kind of document.

Where the shift comes is $250 netbook vs $500 ipad.  Personally if you are going bang for the book the netbook wins.  It can do more then the ipad with less exceptions or tricker.  There is no disputing that.  But in terms of what the ipad does, it does them very well.
Title: Anyone use a eBook for PDF books?
Post by: ColonelHardisson on November 10, 2010, 12:06:38 AM
Quote from: imurrx;414250
How functional is it? As the iPod review, how effective is it in reading the text, searching and use? Any drawbacks or advantages to it?


You can set the text to different sizes. You can search by word or phrase. The main advantage is having pdfs in a portable, easily accessible device. The drawbacks are that they're in greyscale, scrolling through pdfs can be a bit laborious as there isn't a perfect size to set the text at for it, setting the pdfs to fit the screen can make them tough to read due to how small the text is, and the Kindle can be laggy when viewing pdfs.
Title: Well, this takes the cake
Post by: imurrx on November 19, 2010, 11:45:09 PM
http://www.dell.com/content/topics/topic.aspx/global/products/landing/en/inspiron?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&ref=gzilla

Price point will be below $600 (that's the rumor).

A window's 7 netbook that flips into a tablet.

I'm sold. Just need to get one once my current netbook dies.